Middle East Monitor / July 20, 2023
Three quarters of respondents in a poll by the University of Maryland would choose a democratic Israel that’s no longer Jewish, over a Jewish Israel that is dominating the Palestinians. Of the respondents, 80 per cent were Democrats and 64 per cent were Republicans. The same poll also revealed that eight per cent of Americans who hold an opinion on the issue had a positive view of Zionism, and only a small minority linked criticism of the political ideology with anti-Semitism.
Conducted at a critical point in US-Israel relations, the poll asked Americans about their views in the absence of a two-state solution. There is a growing consensus in the human rights community as well as among analysts and experts that the point of no return in terms of the viability of the two-state solution has passed. This has sparked an international debate over how to define the territories from the west of River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, an area which for millennia was part of Palestine.
Major human rights groups, including Israel’s B’Tselem, have concluded that the state has passed the threshold of apartheid. Apart from the apartheid debate, Washington is also out of ideas about what to do with the rise of far-right extremism in Israel. Members of the current coalition government are known for their messianic and Jewish supremacist views and are determined to revive an ancient homeland with complete disregard for international law and current realities.
The poll published this week was carried out between 21 and 27 June, and had 1,439 respondents, with a margin of error of 2.9 per cent. It was directed by Shibley Telhami, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and a senior fellow of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Americans overwhelming oppose any solution that undermines democracy in favour of an ethno-nationalist Jewish state. “One key takeaway pertains to how Americans see the choice between Israel’s Jewishness and its democracy if a two-state solution were no longer on the table” said Telhami summarizing the poll for the Brookings Institution. “Not only does a large majority, 73 per cent, choose democracy even if it meant that Israel would no longer be a Jewish state, but this included most Republicans, 64 per cent, who tend to be very supportive of Israel. Further analysis also shows that a majority of Evangelical Christians, 58 per cent, who tend to be most supportive of Israel, would choose democracy over Jewishness in Israel.”
Only 17 per cent of respondents said that they favoured a solution which protects Israel’s Jewishness over its democracy.
Most Americans do not appear to know enough to have a view on Zionism, but of those who do, only eight per cent said that they have a positive view of the ideology which in its modern manifestation is dedicated to the creation of a Jewish ethno-nationalist state in historic Palestine.
Thirty-seven per cent of those polled said that anti-Semitism is generally on the rise, a view which is likely influenced by the false claim that criticism of Israel and Zionism is “anti-Semitic”. Israel’s ongoing occupation and the brutal policies that go hand in hand with controlling and dominating millions of people, has fuelled debate about the Zionist state.
However, because the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish racism, the increased focus and concern over Israeli policy reinforces the false narrative with every condemnation of the occupation state and every voice in support of Palestine. According to the poll, though, the American public have not been persuaded by this argument. The findings also show that Americans who hold an opinion on the issue tend to resist linking criticism of Israel to anti-Semitism. Among this group, 70 per cent, including a majority of Republicans, said that such criticism was not anti-Semitic.
